Restore Your Nature Deficit

Whale and Bear Watching

Bear and whale watching often go hand in hand because, during low-tide, black bear can almost always be seen flipping rocks along remote foreshore, in search of tasty crab and other crustaceans. Resort guides know just where to look and how close they can get without getting too close. This type of black bear viewing is a short boatride away, which often leads the curious further out to sea in search of whales, porpoise, seals and sea lions.

Depending on the time of year, bears can often be seen around the Outpost – at a safe distance, thanks to a bevy of bear dogs – munching the bear grass along the estuary and across the back channel from the ensuite tents. A centuries-old wildlife trail, across the estuary and some 15-metres above the waterline, is inaccessible to humans, but popular with berry-munching black bear passing back and forth between their salad course of greens from the meadows, and their seafood course of crunchies uncovered along the shoreline.

Bear Watching

Duration (hours)

Distance (km)

Distance (miles)

Elevation Gain (metres)

Elevation Gain (feet)

Difficult

A

0 – 3

i

0 – 2

i

0 – 1

1

10 – 200

1

30 – 650

a

easy

B

3 – 5

ii

2 – 5

ii

1 – 3

2

200 – 400

2

650 – 1300

b

moderate

C

5 – 7

iii

5 – 8

iii

3 – 5

3

400 – 600

3

1300 – 2000

c

difficult

D

7 +

iv

8 +

iv

5 +

4

600 +

4

2000 +

d

advanced

An individual, group, and family activity that typically takes three to four hours. Bear watching is a great activity to combine with other wildlife viewing excursions or during the Wild Side Trail outing. Maximum capacity is 19 guests on two hard-bottom Zodiac marine vessels

Virtually every whale watching expedition produces sightings of gray, humpback or killer (orca) whales. And always, guests return grinning from ear-to-ear from the sheer joy of riding aboard the resort’s hard-bottomed Zodiacs. Gray baleen whales are seen most often, as over 20,000 of the huge (45-50 ft-long) creatures migrate through the sound annually, en-route to Alaska, then back again to Mexico. A few resident grays stick around all year, feeding in shallow bays.

Transient orca, traveling in pods of three to five, feed on seals, sea lions, sea birds amd porpoise. Resident orca may be seen singularly or in small groups, and they feed primarily on fish. The summer migration of spectacular humpback whales is growing in numbers.

The combination whale and bear watch includes a visit to Cow Bay, a summer feeding ground of resident grey whales, a trip to seal rock to view hundreds of stellar seals and a neighbouring colony of majestic, and very vocal (and depending on the direction of the wind – stinky) sea lions.

En-route, marine guides will often stop at eagle nests and monitor the airwaves and on-board hyrdophone for signs of orca and humpback pods. And always, the resort mandates a strict hands-off approach to wildlife viewing – maintaining a non-threatening distance and ensuring that guests do not feed or otherwise disturb the animals.

Whale Watching

Duration (hours)

Distance (km)

Distance (miles)

Elevation Gain (metres)

Elevation Gain (feet)

Difficult

A

0 – 3

i

0 – 2

i

0 – 1

1

10 – 200

1

30 – 650

a

easy

B

3 – 5

ii

2 – 5

ii

1 – 3

2

200 – 400

2

650 – 1300

b

moderate

C

5 – 7

iii

5 – 8

iii

3 – 5

3

400 – 600

3

1300 – 2000

c

difficult

D

7 +

iv

8 +

iv

5 +

4

600 +

4

2000 +

d

advanced

An individual, group, and family activity that typically takes three to four hours. Whale watching is a great activity to combine with other wildlife viewing excursions, or during the Wild Side Trail trip. Maximum capacity is 19 guests on two hard-bottom Zodiac marine vessels

A luxury tented safari on the edge of the world, in the heart of the glorious wild.